Given the way iconic artists have been coming out of the woodwork lately -- with David Bowie, My Bloody Valentine and Prince all dropping new work on an unsuspecting public -- it's only fitting that this month sees some of electronic music's biggest names flipping the script.

Showing off his formidable synthesizer collection, Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor is back with the debut album from his side project, How to Destroy Angels, and it makes for an anxious journey into uncharted electronic territory. Jamie Lidell is back, too, with his self-titled fifth album, which finds the soulful trickster stepping back from his retro fixations and digging into a more unusual fusion of high-energy funk and far-out electronics.

Apparat is also changing things up with his new album: Krieg und Frieden is his score to an experimental theater production of Tolstoy's War and Peace, though fans will be relieved to know that there's plenty of his trademark emo-tronica to accompany his ambient set pieces. Evolution seems to be the theme of the month, in fact, as Lusine, Hervé, Dobie and Darkstar all return with significant updates to their established sounds. Finally, because some classics never lose their luster, Amsterdam's Clone label presents the third installment of its anthology of the work of Detroit's Afro-futurist electro heroes, Drexciya.